Lauren Haneke-Hopps had always seen herself as just another kid. Her legs weren’t going to hold her back from baseball and swimming and rock climbing — things other people with her condition wouldn’t dream of doing.

But trying out for the junior varsity tennis team at Patrick Henry High? This was different. Lauren had never played competitive sports against able-bodied athletes. She’d picked up tennis only two years ago, when as a seventh-grader she joined the wheelchair program at the Barnes Tennis Center and rallied on Thursday nights with the adults.

Then this spring she met Karen Ronney, the varsity tennis coach at Patrick Henry and a national Special Olympics instructor. Ronney started Lauren on “short court,” giving her a smaller racket while she improved her hand-eye coordination and mastered moving around in a specially designed sports wheelchair.

In August, after countless hours of practice, Lauren tried out for Patrick Henry’s junior varsity — this time on a full court. She felt an instant connection with her potential teammates. Like her, many of them were easing into competitive tennis.

“It doesn’t even matter if I’m on the team,” Lauren told her mom, Susan Hopps-Tatum. “I just wanna play with these girls.”

The next day, an email arrived from Ronney, who had good news.

Making the junior varsity team as a freshman? This was different. Lauren had been part of teams before, attending wheelchair sports camps and playing coed baseball for the Miracle League of San Diego, an organization for disabled children.

But now she was part of a team. Not just any team. A team at her own school — a long-held dream of hers, now fulfilled.

Lauren lives with sacral agenesis, a congenital disorder that occurs in approximately one in every 25,000 live births. The lower section of her spinal column has failed to form, leaving her legs shortened and mostly nonfunctional. Her quick smile and constant laughter make it easy to forget she uses a walker to get around the Patrick Henry campus.

“There are times she’s tired and there are challenges related with having a physical disability,” her mom says, “but she just overcomes them and doesn’t let it stop her.”

Lauren, who as a wheelchair player is allowed to hit the ball off two bounces, started the season 0-6 in doubles matches as she adjusted to competing against athletes who have the one thing she does not: the use of their legs.

Then in September, Lauren and sophomore Kaitlin Wilson-Stenzel, another newcomer to the sport, won Lauren’s first doubles match, the girl in the wheelchair sealing the victory over Mira Mesa with a scorcher down the line.

“Gabba Gabba!” her teammates shrieked as they rushed to embrace her. (Several years ago, Lauren made a cameo on the popular children’s television show “Yo Gabba Gabba!”) Lauren cried. Her mom cried. Gilbert, her coach, cried. They all did.

“Just to see the look on her face, it was all worth it,” Kaitlin says. “It felt as if she had done it all. I was just there to help.”

Lauren’s doubles record the rest of the season? One loss, seven wins.

“She’s better than general able-bodied kids, a lot of them,” Ronney says. “She’s earned her place.”

In a few years, Ronney adds, Lauren could earn another distinction: captain of the varsity team. The 14-year-old has already been voted “Most Inspirational” by her peers — a not-so-surprising secret spilled before the Patriots hold their team banquet later this month.

The admirers have not been limited to teammates and classmates. During the recently completed season, opposing players crowded around Lauren's court to see the girl with the blonde ponytail and the wheelchair and the powerful groundstrokes. Other coaches came over to tell Ronney and Gilbert what a wonderful thing it was to watch Lauren, the only wheelchair player competing in San Diego County high school tennis.

“I know it’s redundant,” Ronney says, “but she inspires inspiration.”

Lauren plans on trying out for the school swim team next spring. She’s already started practicing. Her favorite stroke is the freestyle. Her goal is to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro in tennis and swimming.

“For people in a wheelchair,” Lauren says, “I would just say don’t give up. You can’t think you might not reach these goals and these dreams. If you try hard enough and just keep at it, then when you achieve it, it’s really fun. It’s a good feeling.”